Will "Desktop-as-a-Service" or the "Virtual Desktop" Eliminate Your Need to Ever Buy Another Server?
March 20th, 2012 by admin
For over the past twenty years I've been a business consultant helping my clients with their telecom decisions. For the majority of these two decades that's meant choosing the best business phone system or the right local phone service provider.
For the past decade I've focused on helping my clients choose the right wide area data networks (WANs) like MPLS or metro Ethernet to connect multiple office locations across the country.
Now that many of my clients have robust data networks in place they are discovering that they no longer need to keep all their computer network servers in their own office spaces - often the most dangerous place for them to be.
With ample bandwidth and network security in place, many of my clients are looking to place their application critical servers in a public or private colocation or data center facility that better protects the servers from a multitude of dangers.
Still other clients are looking to entirely eliminate their need to even own servers. For them, computing is seen as a utility much in the same way as their electric lights or dial-tone. They don't need to own a phone company to make a phone call, nor do they need to own a power plant to illuminate their office. So many are now asking, "Why am I owning and maintaining all these servers when all I want to do is 'compute'"?
They wonder, "My business CRM runs on Salesforce but I don't own the computers that Salesforce runs on. I trust my online banking partners without having to own the bank's computers. Are my other applications so different?"
While pushing ANY business application to the cloud once seemed far-fetched, now many businesses are asking "So which of my applications CAN NOT go to the cloud"?
So while I've almost exclusively worked with various phone and data vendors in the past, now I'm starting to consult with companies like Virsage to help my business clients answer the "Which-Apps-Can't-Be-Clouded" question.
Virsage is an IT company that says, "If your employees access their apps by clicking on their desktop, then all those apps can be 'clouded' with our 'desktop-as-a-service' offering". Once "in the cloud" the business receives the additional benefit of allowing any employee access to any desktop app no matter where they are in the world.
Watch the video below for an overview of Virsage's desktop-as-a-service solution called "Workplace" which includes the features listed to the right. It certainly makes a lot of sense and basically mimics the desktop-virtualization projects that many larger in-house IT organizations or currently working on or considering.
Now I'm not saying that desktop virtualization should not be an in-house project as many IT directors would imaging that such projects provide job security. What I am saying is that most business owners want to know what all their options are and desktop-as-a-service might be the right solution for many businesses.
What's the first step? Give your trusted independent telecom agent or IT channel partner a call. We'll help you flesh out your virtual desktop options and then help bring in the right vendors like Virsage to produce "apples-for-apples" desktop virtualization or desktop-as-a-service proposals.
Video Explanation of "Desktop-as-a-Service"
Chris Dodge & Jason Konzak of Virsage explain their desktop virtualization "as-a-service" solution
Call ATEL to Learn About Your Desktop Virtualization Options
Please call ATEL at 858-646-4600 if you're looking at "virtualizing" your desktop so we can help you pull in the right solution providers like Virsage or others.
Posted in: Cloud Computing (Hosting & Colocation), Convergence, Data Backup & Disaster Recovery, I.T. Services